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Rethink Products Part 2

I didn't share exactly where I get this stuff. From what I do with this this ornament go to your local craft store. This is really, really a popular gift for newborns. When we do newborn announcements, birth announcements again take a pair of scissors, cut him up into small little strips and just keep stuffing it down in there until you can't stuff anymore. So you go to the local craft store and get these clear ornaments. They're like, I think they were 3 97 for a dozen of them, $4 for a dozen of them, that little piece of ribbon around it. You just pull this little thing here out, stuff it all down in there, put this little guy back in there, and you've got a great product whenever you order your announcements instead of ordering 40 Order something to think about their everybody that I know my wife especially. And we could go to Sant Martin or the Caribbean or somewhere. We'll go to the equator in the middle of summer when it is hot. I mean, that's hot enough to I mean, it's just I d...

on't even want to go there but it is high, really high, and she wants to go into a storm by a Christmas ornament. How you been thinking about the holidays? Right now? It's 148 degrees outside, and we have to. We have to nestle this thing back, you know, 2000 miles back home and be real delicate with it. Everybody loves ornaments, so maybe you can think of ways to do ornaments. Now check this out. We take a metal tag. This is a metal tag. And what about making this into an ornament? A Christmas ornament to recollect her graduating high school on the back? We've got Kinsley 2014 and imagine how easy it is to make these. How long you think it would take to create one of these In photo shop, we have a template. It's really, really easy. It's all designed for all this stuff is so, so simple. There's not only that one. There's different shapes. There's different sizes. There's different styles. People. Girls won't this kind of stuff. They see it. The parents are, especially the ones that want it. So if it's if you're there doing that job, take the extra minute to try and throw something together. Don't leave anything on the table. I mean anything. If there's a possibility that you can make some money from it in this day and age, you better give it a shot. Because if you're not giving it a shot, I guarantee the guy right down the road he's gonna be doing so Like I said in the beginning. And I thought, Man, I'm not interested in all this product. So this stuff is cheesy. No, it's not cheesy. It's not cheesy. I mentioned earlier about the water bottles. All right, Sold one of these. Tow a volleyball girl as soon as that's holding one of these water bottles to a volleyball girl. The whole volleyball team wanted one same thing with the cheerleading. The first day I showed up to photograph the cheerleaders. Everything has to be paid upfront. It was about three or four girls that ordered a water bottle, but they were clients amount already, so they knew what they were getting after they came in. A week later, a bunch of orders trickled in because they wanted on Friday nights they didn't want to carry a Gatorade bottle down on the field with him. They wanted to pour the Gatorade into these, and they wanted to sit this down in front of him while they do their little cheers. That's what they wanted. So you can take a product that you don't think is really sellable. You can put your brand on it, design it, put their name on it, take five extra seconds and put their name on it. I mean, it doesn't take forever, you know. Here's another one. I love this. We're using this one in two different ways. This is basically a metal. This could be a metal print, but check this out. We're using this in a seniors room or own a senior door or were using this on newborns door. So this is this is designed for a child. This is one of my dance studio is we have this out at the dance studio and I will bring a segment of a door if I have to. I'll cut on old door and half and prop it up and put this on the door knob so people know what it is. If I say yeah, this is a door hanger. What do you mean? I don't get it? Like you, like, pull back and knock on the door. No, I said a door hanger. What do you mean? You hang a door with it. You have to be really specific to people. But this is metal, and it works. Awesome. It's beautiful. Imagine newborns and you have one of these. And like I said earlier, you put over here like, be quiet, baby sleeping babies resting beauty, risk, beauty, sleep in progress. Who knows, man, that could be absolutely awesome. So we're loving that we have them put a little hole in it and we tie a piece of fancy ribbon on it, and we make it our own. You're not supposed to do what we do with it. But why not? Why not? I can make this into of if you have a high school senior that is really dysfunctional and loses her keys. You know, maybe you hook her keys right here and is apparently saying, Here's your key chicken. Or if your wife ever loses her keys or your husband on a something, something to think about that we use these. I'm gonna try and pitch these as use in locker rooms. You know, in my locker rooms at school, who knows? I might even be able to convince the coach to do an image even in, like, the laundry area and put on there. You know, I don't know. Dirty clean. Who knows? It's a sign that could be used. I'm gonna try and use this thing for everything I can think of. And there's no answer or no question. That's stupid. Try it. If it doesn't work, what I have to lose. I don't sell one for that particular market. What you guy Randy, What's going on? Man Magnets for lockers. And that's exactly right. And the magnets you could get the The Magnus is a little strip that comes in a role like a roll of tape. That's adhesive on the back, and and you're good to go see Randy. I like your thinking. You're not together for about a week. Thinking about some stuff would be dangerous. Wade come up with one or two things, even Mawr, innovative products or multiple dangerous, which everyone, which everyone would come first. I do have one more thing to say. Yeah, oh, from the beginning, we've always talked about family. Yeah, right. I want to thank your wife for letting me come out here just in time with us. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Thank you. Absolutely. I appreciate you saying that because that is, you know, that's a lot for all of us to be away from my family. So I appreciate I appreciate you saying that. And I've got one more product. I'm gonna have to find it in just a minute. I think it's actually in one of those boxes over there, and it is a and upscale cutting board. Now people say, OK, why would you want a cutting board with your family's picture on it? Like that's gonna gonna cut my kids face. But let me tell you, I put one of these things upfront and people buy them not to cut food on, but they use it as a decoration. Peace. And they put it out on the counter. And it's a glass cutting board. This textured on the front HGH mousey image underneath on the backside of it. And these things are awesome. We got two of them in our house that we live out all the time and actually, after about a year. I was like, You know what? I'm gonna give this a shot. And I did. I cut my first watermelon on that thing and I felt bad because my daughter was on it. But you get over, That's a cutting board. But again, you know, people walk in and they see that they say, Oh, my gosh, what is that? It's so beautiful because it's a high end product. They even H and H even made made tiles that you could like. If you're doing a back splash, you put a tile with your kids image on it. I'm like building a new house. It might be kind of cool. Put some of her growing up in the backsplash in the kitchen. Who knows Who knows? Again? You're gonna want to market to a lot of these products. Is Mom and Dad so again for these mouse pads, Mom and Dad's or terror in these things? Oh, tearing him up? And I mentioned earlier I want to pull this one back out. My wife from the day that my daughter was born, she knew she wanted a new wallet, and she carried around a designer wallet in her pocketbook forever. She loves designer pocketbooks. That's her thing. You know, I spend money on hunting stuff and, Ah, whole lot of other stuff and she likes pocketbooks. So I don't gripe when she buys a pocketbook. And I was leery because I said it was like, You're gonna give up, give up your designer wallet for a wallet from H and H. I'm like no offense or anything, but I mean, how is it gonna hold up? Because you're pretty tough on things. She's been carrying this thing for over two years now. My daughter's over two years old, and when she puts stuff in her wallet, she's got too much in there. So it all hangs out the edge and she slams it shut. So there's receipt hanging out, and I mean this things like, bowed out. I don't even see how it's still working, but this class has worked forever, and the material that this stuff's printed on, I was like, It's gotta scrape off at some point. But she's been using it two years, and it looks as good as the day when I bought it. So I love love, love those things, Um, again, Another thing That's great for parents. I mentioned earlier these IPad sleeves. These are made of the same material, so I know they hold up. I know they hold up. I'm going to get one from my daughter's preschool image just because I love it so much. I shot her preschool on Friday and we had to do her class very last, and I had to dio to get everybody in the group picture first. And then we had to, like, open the cage and let her out, because as soon as she saw that, have Mama and the whole class went crazy. But I don't know how in the world I got her to cooperate. But, man, she sat there and I put a little hand on her hip and she did this little thing and smiled. How many of you guys love photographing your own Children? Really? He has a crazy man. That is awesome. Depends on the day. Depends on the day I think with me mine. Oh my gosh, Next time I need my child photograph, I'll have to get with one of you guys and figure out a way to make that happen and let you do it because she has zero tolerance for me, for some reason. But I get the most enjoyment of taking my little point and shoot camera out. Is this snapping random images of her A love love love doing that? Okay, Another getting off subject. You can tell that you can tell him thinking about my little girl here. Yeah. What you got, man? You how you get the little Children to cooperate and stay at the spot that you have All this perfect lighting. Well, that, my friend, is something that we would have to get into. Ah, whole another three days and creative live about, but no, with kids. I like a kid, man. You know, I mean, like a kid. This is what I do with kids. I'm not afraid to show you. I like a moron. If there's a kid here and I can't get his attention, you know, instead of saying Okay, little Timmy. OK, buddy, listen, here we go. All right? You're gonna watch me much. I'll show you what I'll do. And this is the honest to goodness truth here. And I'm hoping I'm not gonna go off camera to do this, but I want to prove a point here of what it's taking to get these kids that gives attention to these days. I wanna walk right over here, and hopefully that's gonna be OK. But if little kids just aren't going to cooperate, you've got a window of opportunity with kids. Little kids. You got a small window of opportunity. They're not going to sit there for hours upon end while you tweak your lights and you get everything right. So what I do is I say, OK, buddy, look, Here we go. Look, right here. Look, Look, I might do something like that. Then I jump up. Come over here and I'm like nobody. Are you ready? Right here. Look what just happened. Who? You see that right there? All right. Ready? Bam! So it may take all of that to get one good shot of that little kid. So at the end, I am absolutely worn out, and I'm over here making noises, You know, Mike O, like, more on. But that's what it takes, You know, you can't just Okay, listen, here you go. And you have to use a lot of manipulation. Lots of manipulation. If you have that kid that just will not cooperate. Go over to him and whispering his ear and say, Listen, your daddy said if you'd be really good, he might buy you a new four wheel, okay? And he'll say, Really? Yeah, but you gotta be really okay. And then 20 minutes later, he's like, Daddy, can I get my four wheeler now on? Then you say his kids. We've got one heck of a lot of imagination, don't they? Crazy kids, you have to You have to match the personality of what you're shooting. So when I'm working with wild Kid, I'm a wild kid. When I'm working on the senior citizen, I'm a senior citizen. So you have to You have to match that personality she got my man for. I come from a family with five kids. Sure. And you know, we don't even try to pose. I just just take the shot. Yeah, just take off the last family picture. I mean, I have my youngest or he was second youngest son. I have him by the bill. He's trying to follow my daughters looking up. I know where my son is, like just and my wife and I were the only ones that were paying attention, and he's just taking shots and that was it. So don't try to pose and just let him, because odds are at home. It's organized chaos. Oh, yes. Oh, just take true. Sometimes let it be organic and just let things unfold, you know, but But you're still when you're working with a single client, you know, I still want to get those good images if you can, but yeah, I agree. Like my Christmas cards at home from my personal family. It may be me throwing my daughter up in the air, you know, it may be, I mean, who knows who knows what it could be? Yes. You have a question when you're talking about h and h helping you out, Not not their products so much, but either customer service. And, you know, you've mentioned different things that they have helped you with the help me figure this out and help me figure that out. Now, what do you doing? Are you calling them up and saying, Hey, I got this question. Where you getting that information? You watching their web? Unlike where you getting that sort of training information from Let's Take, for instance, whenever I wanted to set up my pricing for schools. You know, I didn't want to go in and set up my pricing for schools and have it all messed up and not make the profit that I wanted. So I called and I said, You know, do you know any other photographers that you might could set me up with? That I may be able to call? That would help me with some information and they said, Well, you know what? We'll do you one better than that. We've got people that we hire as consultants. So I've got someone. I'm gonna give him your information and he's gonna call you And this is a guy Jim Sears. He called. He called me and he said, I heard that you you were getting in the sports photography. I love sports photography. He he like, I mean, this guy got really excited. That's his deal, just like, yeah, let's talk about it, man. And he kind of gave me his opinions on things that he would have done differently. When he first started, he gave me some advice based upon what he hears from other people all across the nation. He looked at what I had laid out, and he said, Blair, to be honest with you, Manus Package. See, I'd probably move that went to D and then see, I would add one more of these. That way, it's gonna drive everybody up to package be. I'm like, man, I was smart, like, Thank you. So you know, when I say that there's resource is out there and that's the thing to love about It is I have a dedicated customer service team. So when I call, I talked to the same person every single time. It's not like I call it. I'm just a number, you know. Hey, can I speak to Shelly? Yes, absolutely. Who is it? Blair. Okay, I'll tell you. Go. Hey, what's up? Where and if I'm having issue with an order, you know, Say, hey, I want you to meet my just submitted the order number 339587 B. If you will go in there and double check and make sure that I didn't choose color correction on there. Okay? No problem. I wanna like about it. I don't have to follow back up and say, Hey, did you remember to do that? Because you said you would do it on Thursday when I called you on Monday. You have to worry about it. So you know when I say that they've got it together, You know, I don't work for H and H. You know, if this thing all went south, I would do everything I could to still be friends with everybody there, because that's what they've done for me. So, yeah, they have. Resource is available for just about everything. And if they don't have a resource available, they can most likely find you somebody that can help you. What do you have to lose, right? You want to go back to the Internet for just a moment, see if there's a few more questions before we keep on going there. Always. Question. Next question is from Megan Lee, photos who ask, First of all, thanks for all the great information. But what is your profit margin on these products, and how do you decide how much you shouldn't mark these items up? Yeah, you basically marked them up, Teoh. And if you're having an issue of I don't know what to charge. Taken image of it. Shoot it out to all of your friends, all of your good personal friends, and then ask them Say, hey, share this with a couple of your co workers and just ask them if they think what I'm trying to charges. Unrealistic. So, like, a bag tag. I'm not gonna sell a bag tied for $40. There is just not gonna happen. So what you have to do is you have to realize that all of these products, they're not necessarily. This isn't gonna be what's going to keep you in business. But if you're not selling any products at all, what would an extra just say on this bag tag right here? Just say that my profit margin waas $8.8 dollars doesn't seem like a lot of money. But there's a lot of people in this world that don't even make that in one hour. So for me, if I can sell this and make $8 off of it times 400 of them per year, why not? So I think a lot of people, they discredit products a lot of times because they think there's just not enough markup in them. There's just not enough markup in them for meat. Even mess with it. But when I can slap a design on something and make eight bucks on it, Times then I sell this one and I might make 15 and I sell this one, I might make 15. It's a never ending circle, so it's like going into, ah, department store. You know, they have things in the other 99 cents because they're still making money off of it. So don't get greedy. That's a big thing. Don't get greedy. Don't get greedy. Good point in that. Another follow up question for that one is from asked photos. Who asked, How do you balance pricing and volume and is part of it? Your location? Yes, well, with pricing on volume, everything is sit. It's one set. I'm not moving anything around, and it's a pretty standardized photo, you know, and it's one shot. Normally, they don't get a great big group of shots that they can choose from. So that's that's how I'm justifying it. And most of the time, people are used to volume type work through the school and things like that. Parents are used to it, so they kind of know what to expect. And when they come to the studio, I can explain, you know? Hey, this is a way different deal here. Obviously, my overhead here is really expensive. And, you know, the type of attention that you're going to get for two hours is gonna obviously have to cost you a little bit, Maura. Good. But more than what it was for three minutes of me, you know, working with your child. So you know, there's a great big difference there. Great, big difference. But it's all in how you break it down and all in how you explain it. So I would explain. It just is that if someone ever said, Well, I don't understand because Bella had her dance pictures made and if I by seven waas $12 But here at your studio five by 7 $60 I understand it's the same exact thing. Well, that's when I say we know you have to understand that Bella's school, you know, I discount those pictures tremendously, and I'm not really making a lot of money at the school, to be honest with you. I'm doing it. Mawr to gain new clients, gained new potential clients. And I'm trying to save you from wasting your money on those crappy pictures like you always get. So, to be honest, I'm really not making much of a dance studio. That's what I'm telling her just to appease her, which really, I am making a lot, but not off of each person. A big volume. So I said, you know, here at the studio, obviously, you see the variety of sets that I have, you know, the amount of equipment having here the overhead I have I have to charge a premium price. You know, there comes a certain level of skill set that has to come with photographing all these different ways, so that's why I do it. But I will tell you, I've never I've never had anyone questioned me on that because I think people kind of understand it already. And if someone is gonna question it really hard, you know, I'm not afraid to kind of let them go is a client either. So don't be. Don't be afraid of it. Tackle everything head on. I tell everybody this all the time I say, Listen, it's much better just to go ahead and face it. Tell the truth. You know, if if a client to save a client ordered these right here, and they were supposed to be here today and she called and said, Hey, is my order there today? Don't tell her a story. Just tell her the truth. And so you know what, Emma, I am so sorry, but something has happened, and I don't know what, but I promise I'm gonna get to the bottom of it. I'm gonna put a rush on it, and I won't have it here for you tomorrow. But honestly, I must have dropped the ball somewhere. And I'm terribly sorry when you start making up a bunch of excuses for everything, you're going to get in a mess. And I learned that from getting my rear in tour up by my parents a few times when I was a kid, and they said, Look, son, that old thing, this is gonna hurt you a lot less than is gonna hurt me. Yeah, That's just something that parents saying that is not true. All right, That's not true, because I tried with my dad a bunch of times and he said no. But just go ahead and face it, face it head on. Could you imagine that might Well, give Let me. I do. I hope you it's fine. It will hurt me at all. It doesn't quite work that way, so we'll see. We'll see what happens. You may not be able to tell. Actually, today I didn't put any on but makeup. All right? Actually, I'm kidding. I don't wear makeup. Get over it. All right. What about a makeup bag? Now? Is every client gonna buy a makeup bag? No, but should we make a cute little makeup bag available for purchase? Should that client come in and see it and say, Oh, my goodness. I need one of those. You know, you put you put your kids pictures on you, put your engagement picture on your wedding picture. Why not? Could this not be a really cool gift for bridesmaids, where you give them a certificate? And with this picture on a makeup bag that says, you know hey, coming soon? I bought you this gift, but obviously we have a picture made to go on it. So you do a close up shot of every bridesmaid's every bride's maid with the bride. And now your client will buy this from you to gift to them. So it's all about just thinking a little bit. Just think about it any certain way that you feel you could get work in front of people. Don't close the door on it. Even something as as what I used to think was cheesy and corny, even something as simple as a license plate. I'll tell you what we've done with these license plates Obviously danced. These dance girls are not driving a car yet. But I said, Wait a minute. How can we be? How can we be creative here? What can we do? Every one of these little dancers, they come in with these boxes, Okay, These great big gearboxes, their own wheels and they roll their little stuff and they got their makeup. And there's everything in it and they get in there and it, like, all unfolds like a transformer. I mean, these girls were professional, so I said, Hey, Bella, let me do something that one of your butt to your box here on Astra model. Do you trust me. Well, no, not really. But so we riveted this to the outside of her little box. So everywhere she goes, she's got her cute little dance picture. So all her competitions that she goes goes to and she's wheeling her bag down the hallway. This is stuck right to the back of it. She knows whose it is. Other people see it. Somebody at that at that hole, competition may say, Hey, we're Hey, what did you do that? And who knows? It could be a dance studio mom that has a lot of influence at another dance studio, and that may get her to call me. And then I may strike up through all my small talk that I'm going to do. It might strike up a meeting for me to go and meet with them. You never ever know. Let me give you this advice to the last dance studio that I picked up. I went in with guns blazing. She called and said, Blair, you told me to call you if I'm not 110% happy, so I'm about 90% happy. But I'd like to see where the other 20% would get me. So do you think I just showed up? Over There was like, a picture? No, man. I got there 30 minutes early. I spread all my products out on the table that were dance specific, had a keynote presentation. Okay. A keynote presentation to show them and educate them. The differences on what I do versus what just may be a run of the mill photographer would do. And they said right then and there said, Look, you went through all this effort just for a dance studio picture. Where do we sign up? Booked him on the spot. Book him on the spot. Now that 10 boxes. These are awesome for our wallets. Kids with wallets. We even use these as gifting. We may give these Teoh you know, two people put jewelry in it or candy. Throw some gum in it and mail it to a client is your things that don't really cost a whole lot of money. But again, they add a lot of value to what you're doing. We have these and also an alternative to the little CD hub. For those of you, they're shooting weddings and you have clients that really, all you're doing is just a shooting burn. You know, again, you know I'm not judging or saying you should or shouldn't do that. That's not my business. But what if, of course, this is a senior, but what about one of these? A CD 10. So when you give them that CD, it feels a little more justified. If you're charging $3000 to shoot their wedding and giving him a CD of images and then you open it up and it's made for a CD, it's matching your brand. It's saying thank you. It is saying, Think holiday cards again. If you're not offering holiday cards, go back through some of your past sessions. This this holiday, and I want you to try. Just pick about 20 of your top spenders and see if they won't buy him. See if they won't buy him. I'm telling it will happen. It will happen. So what we're gonna do here, let's see, talked about those books while ago, I was ableto reiterate exactly what rebuke who was rebuke, who helped me get out of a jam big time early on, and they have stumbled upon them. They're going to a convention. And they said I said, Wait a minute. So you're telling me I could just send you my images? And I can pick a style from all these photographers that you work with, and you can make my books out of there templates. And I said, Yeah, absolutely. So they worked with my lab, right? They said, Yeah, we're a partner with them. You can upload them, will applaud him straight to them, and they send them right to you. What? So I don't have to do that anymore? They have to think. Does that cost me money? Yes. Is it cheaper than me sitting there struggling with a book for three or four hours? Yeah. So the way they work, as they say, Look, we've talked to several different photographers, and we've had them to to design several different books for us. And they give us the templates, and then you look and you say I like Blair Phillips is senior boy book. Design it like that and you're done. So I got them to do a 25% off anyone service. So if you're interested in that, check these guys out. Reboot who dot com and 25% off anyone service. Blair loves creative love, and that is exactly the case is I do love creativelive now royalty free music again. Why are we using music? That's people here on. Don't do that. Listen, I'll tell you why you don't want to use popular music. Number one. You get your little pants sued off of you and the number two Picture this. You have an awesome senior session. You just knocked it completely out of the park. I mean, you cannot wait to see the amount of money you're gonna make all this session and you can't wait to share your love with the client and they come in and you have a Katy Perry song playing with the slide show. She may absolutely hate Katy Perry because there may be a girl at school that looks like Katy Perry. And they all say, Oh, she looks like a period. Or she made that. Maybe her in her ex boyfriend's favorite song. But he just dumped her the week before homecoming to go out with another girl. And she hates anything to do with that song. Can't stand it. I can't deal with it, so that comes on and it's the Katy Perry song. She's automatically turned off. She just turns her completely off. It kills the mood. So play songs that people are unidentifiable with whenever you play a song toe a slide show that I understand and recognize. I started paying more attention to the song and I'm singing along, but if it's a song that just enhances what I'm looking at, and that's what I'm using, why do you think people like Apple and companies like that? Why do you think they're using songs that aren't necessarily, you know, mainstream songs? Because they want you to pay attention to the product at hand and not the song So food for thought There don't be crazy now. I got ancient age during this last break. I said, Listen, I've been talking a lot about these albums because Ivan tell everybody how cool they are, so you've got to help me with something here and they said, Fine, we'll do it. We'll do it 50% off. Eclectic albums, 10 page, 20 side album. When I said when you said, How do I get samples? This is a great way to do it design a book, You can get 1 50% off. What if you wanted to take it a step further So you gotta enter this code here? Cl Blair album So goto H and H 50% off albums if you have any issues, is in any of these Call 80 nations say, Hey, I saw this weird gown creativelive Blair Phillips and he said something about a discount on album. Well, I'm calling to cash that in. How do I do it? So don't be afraid. Be afraid to do that. Those folios If you decide. Maybe a folio is not quite where you want to go. Our album is not quite. We're going to go try a folio. That's really beautiful Folios. I had 50% off, 50% off. How can you go wrong with that?